Interfecus

Hilarious!

Surface TENSION has nothing to do with it and is completely irrelevant. Surface AREA is what matters. That's the point we've been trying to make. Airstones create bubbles which generate a larger effective surface area between air and water for diffusion of oxygen. The rising column of bubbles also helps to create a current to distribute that oxygenated water around the tank.

Apologies to those who have been waiting for this. First there was a delay with the Minutes because I forgot to bring a disk to the meeting, now I just can't fill the white spaces in it . It should hopefully be released this weekend.

Ballistic and livebearer_breeder both breed guppies locally.

LB, since you were still talking about surface tension today, please note that spooky's message is exactly right. Surface tension has nothing to do with it. The only thing I have to add is that in a reasonably small, planted tank you don't really need an airstone if you have a filter which disturbs the surface enough and provides some current.

I want to get some of these at some stage. I don't have the room right now, even if I am upsizing.

Catch them and keep them in a terrarium instead

Thanks from me too . The event was great and obviously well thought out. If this becomes an annual thing, I hope to enter fish next time.

fins, I'd live to see you try to send your livebearers to each other virtually

It was interesting to note that the seahorse farm have some secret technique for getting practically 100% hatch rates on the brine shrimp for the little seahorses. They refused to show people their brine shrimp hatchery on request since apparently it was the inability to get enough live food that shut down two potential competitors. The question is whether it's truly a new technique or whether they're just decapsulating them or something.

Stooooooooooooooooooooooooooopid... Unless I'm mistaken MAF officials can read an open web board as well as anybody else. Seriously Shae, we don't want these things infesting our waterways down here. They cause absolute havoc for the environment here and exterminate all other species. How can fishkeepers like us expect MAF to become more understanding about our concerns if some of us put native species at risk by shifting around unwanted ones that pose a major threat? I thought you wanted a challenge anyway. Gambusia don't look half as good as guppies, pose no challenge to breed, and you'll never get anything out of them except wasted tank space. With the massive scale problems they cause, anybody who spreads Gambusia to another region deserves to be caught. Forget about bringing them to Wellington. If they were going to be fed out to a big predator straight away it might not be so bad, but keeping and breeding them is another matter.

This club sounds interesting. I might join at some stage in the future once it gets started. I would be surprised if a club really needed its own forum. You would never get enough traffic unless the club were very large. The livebearer forum on this site is barely used, so a forum on a separate site would almost certainly get even less use. Just using the livebearer forum on this board more actively would, I believe, be sufficient. To make it easier to find, you could link directly to that section of the fishroom from your website. Just a suggestion.

Fish water is an excellent fertiliser. Nitrogen in quite large quantities (as found in fish poop and soluble nitrogen such as ammonia and its derivatives) is essential for the plant since large amounts are needed to produce the carbon fixing enzyme for photosynthesis. Lack of nitrogen means they can't make this enzyme, can't collect enough energy, and die once their reserves have been used up. Summary: Fish water has lots of nitrogen which is good for plants. If you're into organic growing and stuff (or even if, like me, you don't really care whether it's organic or not as long as it tastes good) you could use it on your veges instead of a regular fertiliser. If you use the waste water from your tanks to water your garden, you both save water and the plants will do well out of it.

I just got back. The event was quite good. I bought a 3 foot tank and 6 F. scheeli killies. Meeting new people was great and definitely worthwhile. I believe that to get the most out of it you really need to have something entered though. Hopefully the shows will continue and encourage the improvement of the quality and variety of fish in New Zealand.

The room is available for the Friday and the Saturday

I have a six bunk room reserved for this weekend for the fish show at the cost of $45 per night for the room. Even though this is already a great price, if anybody else (preferably male as well) wants to share the room and split the cost that'd be great. It's fine if you only want to stay one night too, and the cost will be divided accordingly. If you need accomodation at the last minute, just send me an email or PM today or tomorrow or post a reply here.

You mean you have a spaghetti jar in the tank that he hides in? I'm not quite sure of the full size, but they need a three foot tank minimum when fully grown. That really depends on what you mean by tricks. If you mean eating from your hand, then yes. If you mean swimming through hoops, no. They seem to be reasonably smart for fish. Black ghost knifefish can live for up to 20 years so keeping one is a long term commitment. Hope to hear more from you. Any chance of some pics? I find that pictures don't do them justice since you can't see the motion but they still look neat.

Welcome to the fishroom, BobG. It sounds like the aquarium hobby has hit you hard! Any chance of you posting some pics? Have you researched the proper way to start a tank? The most common mistake a beginner can make is to build up the stocking level of their tanks too fast. I'm asking just in case. We meet in the chat room at 9:00 PM (NZ time: GMT+12) every day so feel free to drop in. It usually runs for about 2 hours after that. Good luck.

Hi funky. Hope to see you participating in the forums. Might see you at the fish show.

Cultures tend to run in a boom and bust cycle, especially if they're in a large container. The numbers of worms increase massively at first, but as the toxins from decaying dead worms increase also the culture reaches a peak then dies off again. The dying off cycle can be quite rapid or quite slow, depending on culture size. When getting a starter culture make a new one from it immediately. After that, make several new cultures as soon as an existing one reaches the climbing up the walls stage. You should always have at least two cultures in different locations so that a backup is always available.

Thanks Jude, I'll send you an email.

Caryl, are there still seats available in your cars? I haven't had a reply to my email asking whether anybody in KMAC can give me a lift up. If you have a spare seat that you'd be happy to let me have for a share of the petrol costs that'd be great. Otherwise I'll need to get a bus ticket to Napier. Cheers, Interfecus

Well said, Ira

Salmonella is the great generalist of the diseases. Every time you pat a dog, stroke a cat, go near a bird cage, stick your hand in an aquarium or step in a puddle or mud you risk contracting it. It can affect most of the animals we deal with every day. Perhaps you should think twice before breathing. Seriously, one case is no cause for worry. How many people die while crossing roads each year? Do you still do it? By the way, salmonella is treatable. You have to weigh the effect against the odds. For the sake of the extra convenience, I'll take the one in a million chance and keep sucking on the end of the siphon. If you're careful you should practically never get a mouthful anyway.

Not likely. Generally you can assume that separate species won't produce fertile hybrids, although there are quite a few exceptions to that.